Sky Trains

SkyTrains
By Alex

Years ago the city of Bangkok, Thailand had electric trams that were used Skytrain approaching Sala Daeng Station to transport people around the city. These trams were abandoned because they were slow and added to the city's traffic problems. Then the Bangkok Mass Transit System began. Today there are two main SkyTrain routes with 23 total stations.

The first section of the SkyTrain (rot fai fah in Thai) system opened in December of 1999. The sky train is the fastest and cleanest way to get around the busy city of Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok is the only city in Thailand that has a SkyTrain in the inner city. Visit the ThaiFocus site to view photographs of a sky train.

The SkyTrain is useful in Bangkok because of the congestion and traffic problems. It's electric trains carry people above the city. It also is a cleaner and smoother way to get around the city. The sky train can transport up to 50,000 people per hour in one direction. The inside of each car is air conditioned. There are usually seats available (except at the busiest times), and all the signs and announcements are in English as well as Thai.

The SkyTrain has been very important to the city of Bangkok from the day it opened to the moment you read this. This form of transportation can be found in other cities around the world. For example, the city of Vancouver, Canada has a SkyTrain system in place.

Citations

Online Sources

"BTS SkyTrain." Bangkok Mass Transit System. 15 March 2005. <http://www.bts.co.th/en/btstrain.asp>.

"Destination Guide Bangkok: Skytrain." ThaiFocus.com. 15 March 2005. <http://www.thaifocus.com/bangkok/skytrain.htm>.

Images

Photograph of SkyTrain is granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>.

Copyrighted image of elevated train from "Microsoft Office Online" <http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us&cag=1> (October-March, 2004-2005). Clip art available only to licensed users for non-commercial purposes.